Wireless Node Network for Automatic Serialization of Objects

ABSTRACT

Exemplary embodiments include a wireless computing network to automatically provide digital serialization of a plurality of objects, the network including a plurality of wireless nodes located in a physical space, each of the plurality of wireless nodes configured to wirelessly communicate with at least one other wireless node in the network in a secure manner and affixed to a physical object in the physical space via any attachment means, utilize data received from a vision-based system to provide a unique digital identity for the physical object upon which it is affixed and transmit information regarding the physical object upon which it is affixed to a portable wireless computing device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the priority benefit of U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 63/052,794 filed on Jul. 16, 2020 and titled“Wireless Node Network for Automatic Serialization of Objects,” which ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

SUMMARY OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Exemplary embodiments include a wireless computing network toautomatically provide digital serialization of a plurality of objects,the network including a plurality of wireless nodes located in aphysical space, each of the plurality of wireless nodes configured towirelessly communicate with at least one other wireless node in thenetwork in a secure manner and affixed to a physical object in thephysical space via any attachment means, utilize data received from avision-based system to provide a unique digital identity for thephysical object upon which it is affixed and transmit informationregarding the physical object upon which it is affixed to a portablewireless computing device.

The wireless computing network may further include one or more of theplurality of wireless nodes providing a unique identifier for thephysical object without receiving data from the vision-based system. Theone or more of the plurality of wireless nodes may transmit informationregarding a history of locations for the physical object, transmitinformation for authenticating the physical object, and/or transmitinformation for determining the physical object is not a counterfeitversion of the physical object. In some exemplary embodiments, data isnot received from a vision-based system for providing the unique digitalidentity for the physical object, and instead the physical object has apredetermined unique digital identity and the one or more of theplurality of wireless nodes provides secondary digital identificationfor the physical object. Additionally, the one or more of the pluralityof wireless nodes link an identifier to the physical object'spredetermined unique digital identity. In some cases, the physicalobject's predetermined unique digital identity is read through thevision-based system and transmitted over a wireless link to the one ormore of the plurality of wireless nodes. Both the physical object'spredetermined unique digital identity and the identifier of the one ormore of the wireless nodes may be transmitted to a cloud server.

In further exemplary embodiments, the vision-based system may capturethe contents of a paper, document, book, prescription label or a pieceof art (and/or capture contents associated with each item) and transferthe contents to one or more of the wireless nodes. A portable wirelesscomputing device or a drone may read the contents from the one or morewireless nodes. In some cases, the contents may be transferred to thewireless nodes without the vision-based system. Additionally, thewireless nodes may be programmed with artificial intelligence computingcapability used to process the contents and/or used to respond to usergenerated queries about the contents.

In some exemplary embodiments, wireless nodes associated with a piece ofart may transmit the contents to a user's mobile computing device whenthe user passes by (or does not pass by) the piece of art. The same maybe the case for contents associated with a prescription label having oneor more wireless nodes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in thefigures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicatesimilar elements.

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary electronic sticker.

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary embodiment of wireless SoC.

FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary network of electronic stickers as wirelessnodes, in communication with one another and a gateway.

FIG. 4A shows an example where a product is uniquely identified with adigital label.

FIG. 4B shows an example of a provisioning process that can be performedby reading the previous serialization information through a vision-basedsystem.

FIG. 4C shows an example of a unique digital identification of a productthat can be read by a consumer through a wireless device communicatingwith the digital label.

FIG. 4D shows an example where a drone may fly by and read all of thedigital labels in an area through a wireless link to each of the labels.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

While the present technology is susceptible of embodiment in manydifferent forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein bedescribed in detail several specific embodiments with the understandingthat the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification ofthe principles of the present technology and is not intended to limitthe technology to the embodiments illustrated.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to an electronic label thatcan be attached to any physical item for tracking, provisioning,quantification of item, or for measurement of any number ofcharacteristics. In exemplary embodiments, the electronic label iscapable of being attached to any physical item via any attachmentmeans—adhesive, mechanical, or otherwise.

In an exemplary embodiment, the electronic label is a specially designedand manufactured hardware computing chip with external components eitherattached or printed directly onto the chip. The external components maybe any one or more of an attached or printed antenna (to enable wirelesscommunications), a power source (such as a printed battery, or energyharvester), and a sensor. The electronic label also has wirelessfirmware, to enable end to end encrypted communications over anywireless network.

Each electronic label is a wireless node in a communications network ofa plurality of wireless nodes. Each electronic label can communicatewith other neighboring wireless labels using standard protocols andcommunication technologies like Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE),IEEE 802.15.4, Wi-Fi, etc. The electronic labels can be composed in anyconfiguration to form a full or partial mesh network. Further, eachelectronic label is capable of connecting to one or more centralizedgateways, such as a Wi-Fi access point, smartphone, tablet, laptopcomputer, desktop computer, cellular gateways, Low Power Wide AreaNetwork (LPWAN) gateways, satellite gateways, or any other computingdevice capable of wireless communication. The electronic labels are akinto edge devices in a wireless mesh network.

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary electronic label 102, which also acts as awireless node in a communication network as discussed herein. The label102 may have an antenna 104. The antenna may be printed directly ontothe hardware chip, or separately attached. Label 102 may also have oneor more sensor(s) 106. In exemplary embodiments, sensor(s) 106 may beany of a temperature sensor, clock, humidity sensor, or any other typeof sensor relating to a characteristic for measurement. Label 102 alsocomprises battery 108, which may be a printed battery printed directlyonto the hardware chip. Wireless SoC 110 (wireless chip) may also be apart of label 102, enabling wireless communication capability for label102, such that label 102 acts as a wireless node in a computing network.

While not expressly depicted, other components may also be present onlabel 102. Also, while not expressly disclosed, label 102 may have othercomponents to enable its functionality such as memory capable of storingsoftware instructions, and one or more processors capable of executingsoftware instructions. Further, the components of label 102 may be ofdiffering size or in a differing location on label 102 than shown in theexemplary figure.

Label 102 may be of any size practical for attachment to an object. Inan exemplary embodiment, the electronic label may be 2 cm×2 cm.

Wireless SoC 110 may be of a size practical for inclusion on label 102.In exemplary embodiments, the chip is 1 square millimeter in size. Inother embodiments, the wireless chip can of other sizes, such as 6square millimeters (3 mm×2 mm), 4 square millimeters (2 mm×2 mm), or anyother size. FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary embodiment of wireless SoC, toshow a relative size of wireless SoC in comparison to a penny in UScurrency.

FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary network of electronic labels as wirelessnodes, in communication with one another and a gateway. While only a fewnodes are depicted in FIG. 3 for simplicity, there can actually bemillions of nodes in a network. Further, while not expressly depicted inthe figure, there can be any number of other components in the networkas well, such as routers, switches, actuators, drones, handheldcomputing devices, robots, industrial robots and/or other devices.

The wireless nodes discussed herein may transmit data to a gatewaydevice at periodic intervals, or upon the meeting of certain triggeringconditions. Each electronic label can transmit either all of itscaptured data to the gateway, or transmit only select pieces ofinformation. The specific data transmitted to the gateway and the timeinterval at which the data is transmitted to the gateway may becustomizable. The frequency of transmission and the cost of transmissionare important factors for bandwidth limitations. Alternatively, oradditionally, data can be transmitted from an electronic label directlyto a user computing device (such as a smartphone, table, smartwatch,laptop, etc.) or from a gateway to a user computing device. The gatewaydevice may transmit this information to a cloud using backhaulcommunication either through wired or wireless infrastructure.

In further embodiments, a gateway may not always be present in thenetwork of FIG. 3. When a gateway arrives within range (such as througha person walking up with a smartphone), then data may be transmitted tothe gateway via a dedicated application operating on the smartphone orthrough a push notification, text message, standard BLE advertisementbeacons or other means. As would be understood by persons of ordinaryskill in the art, the gateway can be any computing device, mobile orstationary.

In an exemplary use case, millions of nodes may be deployed in a largewarehouse, with multiple gateways communicating with each other. Agateway may be a Wi-Fi access point that is already deployed in thewarehouse infrastructure, wired to back haul infrastructure, andconnected to a computing cloud. Once an electronic label (edge device)connects to the gateway, it is connected to the Internet at that point.

Use of Label for Serialization of Items

Digital serialization of products is a known process in industrialmanufacturing, where each manufactured product is given a uniqueidentification. This identification can be in the form of a unique barcode, QR code, a digital identifier, an alphanumeric identifier, aholographic image, a unique fingerprint, etc. Typically the uniqueidentification for each product is affixed to the product by themanufacturer at the time of manufacturing.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the electronic label 102 isutilized as a digital label that is affixed to a physical item, to serveas a unique identifier for that item. FIG. 4A shows an example where aproduct is uniquely identified with a digital label 102.

If no unique identification is already affixed to the item (such as nobarcode, QR code, etc), then the electronic label is affixed to an itemand provides a digital identity for the item. This digital label can beattached to or printed on the product directly at the manufacturingstage. The electronic label provides a unique digital identity that canprovide digital serialization services in addition to other benefits(e.g. traceability, authentication and anti-counterfeiting services,etc.). That is, by reading the digital label by any enabled wirelesscomputing device, a history of location of the item can be traced, theitem can be authenticated, and/or the item can be determined to not be acounterfeit version.

In some embodiments where an item already has a unique identifieraffixed to it (such as a barcode, QR code, etc.), then the electroniclabel is affixed to the item as well, to provide a secondary digitalidentification for the item. Typically, the electronic label may beaffixed to the item at the time of the item's manufacture by themanufacturer or by a third party.

When the electronic label is affixed to the item, the digital identifierassociated with the electronic label is linked to the unique identifierpreviously assigned by the manufacturer. That is, the digital label islinked with previously generated or printed serialization information onthe product. As shown in FIG. 4B, this provisioning process can be doneby first reading the previous serialization information through a visionbased system, e.g. through a commercial camera, portable camera (on amobile phone, tablet, etc.), or special hardware programmed to readholographic images. The hardware then transfers this information over awireless link to the digital label 102 and links the unique digitalidentity of the label 102 with the previously printed productserialization information. This process is automated without requiringany human intervention. Thus, thousands of items can be labeledautomatically in this manner, at a much greater speed than currentsystems that require human involvement. Further, with the automation,there is less chance of human error.

In other exemplary embodiments where an item already has a uniqueidentifier affixed to it (such as a barcode, QR code, etc.), then theelectronic label is affixed to the item as well with its own uniqueidentifier (such as barcode, QR code, etc.), to provide a secondarydigital identification for the item. Typically, the electronic label maybe affixed to the item at the time of the item's manufacture by themanufacturer, or by a third party.

When the electronic label is affixed to the item, the digital identifierassociated with the electronic label is linked to the unique identifierpreviously assigned by the manufacturer. That is, the digital label islinked with previously generated or printed serialization information onthe product. This provisioning process can be done by utilizing a visionbased system to read the previous serialization information, as well asthe serialization information from the electronic label, and transmitthis information to a cloud or local server. The server then processesthe two QR/barcodes and links the two digital identities. In thisembodiment, the vision based system doesn't need to communicatewirelessly with the electronic label for provisioning.

The information read by the vision system, and/or the digital label 102information can be transmitted and maintained in a data structure (suchas a database), stored in a local or remote physical or virtual server,such as a cloud computing server.

As shown in FIG. 4C, the unique digital identification of the productthen can be read by a consumer through a wireless device communicatingwith the digital label, e.g. through a mobile phone, tablet, or otherportable computing device. By scanning the digital label 102 with theportable wireless device, the user of the portable wireless computingdevice can instantaneously receive the serialization information aboutthe item, as well as other relevant information (such as authenticity,history of location of item, contents, etc.). This information may betransmitted to the portable wireless computing device via a dedicatedsoftware application operating on the portable wireless computingdevice, or via a text message, push notification, or other notificationmeans.

In industrial or logistics application, the unique digital label canalso be read with a hand held device e.g. through a cell phone or atablet or by a pre-configured wired or battery powered wirelessinfrastructure that can communicate wirelessly with the digital labels.For example, a gateway device can communicate wirelessly with all thedigital labels attached to products inside a container over a wirelessmesh network. Wall mounted or ceiling attached gateways or wirelessaccess points can also communicate with the digital labels attached toproducts or people inside large buildings e.g. industrial warehouses.

In other embodiments, the contents of a paper, a document, a book, or apiece of art can be captured with a vision based system. The visionsystem then transfers this information wirelessly to the attacheddigital label. This stored digital information can then be readwirelessly by a cell phone, tablet, or other portable wireless computingdevice. That is, when a portable wireless computing device scans thedigital label, information about the contents of the item may also bepresented to the user of the portable wireless computing device.

In further embodiments, the contents of a paper, a document, a book, ora piece of art can be explicitly programmed into the digital labelthrough a wireless device interacting with the digital label without avision system.

The digital information retrieved from the digital label can then beprocessed with an artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML)data pipeline. For example a mobile phone device can read the contentsof a document wirelessly and the AI/ML pipeline can process the data andpresent to a user either the raw data or a contextual summary on amobile phone or tablet. In addition, the AI/ML pipeline can providepredictions of data that may be lost in transit from a digital label,due to collisions, delayed or lost packets, link failures, etc.

The AI software may operate locally on each individual digital label,since each label has local computing capabilities. In other embodiments,the AI software operates on a gateway device present in the network. Infurther embodiments, the AI software operates on a separate server incommunication with a digital label, either directly or indirectly.

In an example scenario, the entire content of a book can be readwirelessly by a mobile phone or a tablet by interacting with the digitallabel. The book can then be processed and indexed with the AI/ML datapipeline to provide contextual services to the user. The AI/ML datapipeline can also respond to user generated queries relevant to thecontent of the data captured.

In other exemplary embodiments, the digital label can be affixed to awork of art. A picture can be taken of the work of art with a camera andcontextual information about the artwork can be stored in the digitallabel. When a user passes by the artwork, the user's mobile computingdevice (such as mobile phone) can interact with the digital label andretrieve the contextual information about the artwork. This informationmay be received via a dedicated application operating on the mobiledevice, or via a notification retrieved on the mobile device.

As shown in FIG. 4D, a drone may fly by and read all of the digitallabels in an area through a wireless link to each of the labels. A dronecan also interact wirelessly with the digital label attached to theproduct to read unique product information in addition to providing orreceiving other digital services, as discussed herein. A drone ormultiple drones can interact with the digital labels over a wirelessmesh network.

In another exemplary use case, a digital label may be affixed to apharmaceutical prescription container. A camera may read informationfrom the label of the prescription and this information may be stored onthe digital label. When an authorized mobile device (such as robot,drone, mobile phone, tablet, etc) is in range, information about theprescription may be transmitted to, and/or displayed on, the authorizedmobile device.

Further, the medical data read by the camera from the prescriptioncontainer goes through an AI/machine learning pipeline, which maysuggest some other information to the authorized mobile device.

While these specific examples are discussed herein for serialization, itwould be understood by persons of ordinary skill in the art that similarmechanisms can be used for serialization of any type of item with thepresently disclosed digital label.

Other Exemplary Uses Cases

In other exemplary use cases, the electronic label nodes can be deployedin any physical space, stationary or mobile. For example, electroniclabels can be placed on objects that are in transit, such as in a truck,airplane, railroad, ship, etc. When the objects are in transit and inmotion, the electronic labels can aid in gleaning information about whatis happening with the attached objects in real time.

Further, in various scenarios the nodes may be communicating with oneanother without regular transmissions to a gateway. For example,products may be offloaded from a truck and there is no gateway withinthe truck. A forklift may come in and unload the pallet. In these cases,a drone may fly by or a person may walk by with a computing device, andan automated summary is transmitted by one or more of the nodes to thedrone or computing device. Prior systems require a person to manuallyread all individual labels of objects with a handheld device, such as abarcode scanner or QR code scanner. By attaching an electronic label toeach object, and each label acting as a wireless node in a network, eachitem can be automatically traced and accounted for, significantlyreducing manual human labor cost and time associated with real-timeinventory updates.

In the description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation,specific details are set forth, such as particular embodiments,procedures, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present technology. However, it will be apparent toone skilled in the art that the present technology may be practiced inother embodiments that depart from these specific details.

While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the system aredescribed above for illustrative purposes, various equivalentmodifications are possible within the scope of the system, as thoseskilled in the relevant art will recognize. For example, while processesor steps are presented in a given order, alternative embodiments mayperform routines having steps in a different order, and some processesor steps may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/ormodified to provide alternative or sub-combinations. Each of theseprocesses or steps may be implemented in a variety of different ways.Also, while processes or steps are at times shown as being performed inseries, these processes or steps may instead be performed in parallel,or may be performed at different times.

While various embodiments have been described above, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. The descriptions are not intended to limit the scope of thepresent technology to the particular forms set forth herein. To thecontrary, the present descriptions are intended to cover suchalternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included withinthe spirit and scope of the present technology as appreciated by one ofordinary skill in the art. Thus, the breadth and scope of a preferredembodiment should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplaryembodiments.

What is claimed is:
 1. A wireless computing network to automaticallyprovide digital serialization of a plurality of objects, the networkcomprising: a plurality of wireless nodes located in a physical space,each of the plurality of wireless nodes configured to: wirelesslycommunicate with at least one other wireless node in the network in asecure manner; affix to a physical object in the physical space via anyattachment means; utilize data received from a vision-based system toprovide a unique digital identity for the physical object upon which itis affixed; and transmit information regarding the physical object uponwhich it is affixed to a portable wireless computing device.
 2. Thewireless computing network of claim 1, further comprising one or more ofthe plurality of wireless nodes providing a unique identifier for thephysical object without receiving data from the vision-based system. 3.The wireless computing network of claim 1, further comprising the one ormore of the plurality of wireless nodes transmitting informationregarding a history of locations for the physical object.
 4. Thewireless computing network of claim 1, further comprising the one ormore of the plurality of wireless nodes transmitting information forauthenticating the physical object.
 5. The wireless computing network ofclaim 1, further comprising the one or more of the plurality of wirelessnodes transmitting information for determining the physical object isnot a counterfeit version of the physical object.
 6. The wirelesscomputing network of claim 1, further comprising not utilizing datareceived from a vision-based system to provide the unique digitalidentity for the physical object, and instead the physical object havinga predetermined unique digital identity and the one or more of theplurality of wireless nodes providing secondary digital identificationfor the physical object.
 7. The wireless computing network of claim 6,further comprising the one or more of the plurality of wireless nodeslinking an identifier to the physical object's predetermined uniquedigital identity.
 8. The wireless computing network of claim 7, furthercomprising first reading the physical object's predetermined uniquedigital identity through the vision-based system.
 9. The wirelesscomputing network of claim 8, further comprising transmitting thephysical object's predetermined unique digital identity over a wirelesslink to the one or more of the plurality of wireless nodes.
 10. Thewireless computing network of claim 9, further comprising transmittingthe physical object's predetermined unique digital identity and theidentifier of the one or more of the wireless nodes of the plurality ofwireless nodes to a cloud server.
 11. The wireless computing network ofclaim 10, further comprising the vision-based system capturing contentsof a paper, document, book, prescription label or a piece of art. 12.The wireless computing network of claim 11, further comprising thevision-based system transferring the contents to the one or more of theplurality of wireless nodes.
 13. The wireless computing network of claim12, further comprising the portable wireless computing device or a dronereading the contents from the one or more of the plurality of wirelessnodes.
 14. The wireless computing network of claim 13, furthercomprising the contents being transferred to the one or more of theplurality of wireless nodes without the vision-based system.
 15. Thewireless computing network of claim 14, further comprising the one ormore of the plurality of wireless nodes programmed with artificialintelligence computing capability.
 16. The wireless computing network ofclaim 15, further comprising the artificial intelligence computingcapability being used to process the contents.
 17. The wirelesscomputing network of claim 16, further comprising the artificialintelligence computing capability being used to respond to usergenerated queries about the contents.
 18. The wireless computing networkof claim 17, further comprising the one or more of the plurality ofwireless nodes associated with the piece of art transmitting thecontents to a user's mobile computing device.
 19. The wireless computingnetwork of claim 17, further comprising the one or more of the pluralityof wireless nodes associated with the piece of art transmitting thecontents to a user's mobile computing device when the user passes by thepiece of art.